Type Assault rifle Designer Romtechnica | In service 1986–present | |
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Place of origin Socialist Republic of Romania Used by Romania, Socialist Republic of Romania Wars Peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan. | ||
The Pușcă Automată model 1986 (Automatic Rifle Model 1986, abbreviated PA md. 86 or simply md. 86) is the standard assault rifle used by the Romanian Military Forces and manufactured in Cugir, Romania by the ROMARM firm, located in Bucharest. The export name for this variant is the AIMS-74.
Contents
History
As the Soviet Union switched from the 7.62×39mm caliber AKM to the 5.45×39mm caliber AK-74, it encouraged other nations of the Warsaw Pact to follow suit.
By the mid 80s, Romania decided to switch calibers, however it was decided that the new rifle would be developed independently, and not represent a clone of the Soviet AK-74. In doing so, the PA md. 86 has several anachronistic AKM elements that were found only on the prototype Soviet AK-74.
Features
The most easily recognized AKM feature is the gas block design (45 degree versus 90 degree). Incidentally, although the gas block is purely AKM, the gas vent in the barrel did change to a 90-degree design to minimize bullet shearing (a problem with early Soviet AK-74s with 45-degree gas blocks). This means the Romanian PA md. 86 has a double-angle gas port, which makes it much harder to clean the gas vent. This variant also uses the AK-47 rear trunnion, and thus the siderail is lengthened.
It uses either a "bird cage" flash suppressor, or a flash hider (designed for Special Forces). The design also incorporates an upward-curved charging handle, a wire side-folding stock (based on the East German design, but offset slightly to the left), and a traditional vertical handgrip. The md. 86 use laminated wood lower handguards, and Bakelite pistol grips and upper handguards. None of the components have had any polymer versions.
The AG-40 grenade launcher can be attached as a lower handguard after removing the standard one. Lasers/lights can also be clamped to the barrel in two ways. The rifle is one of only a few AK versions that have a 3-round burst option. The selector markings are as follows, from top to bottom: ∞, 1, 3. Only ribbed steel magazines are used.
Combat divers also use a version with straight handguards, as the forward grip is considered to be cumbersome for amphibious operations.
Carbine version
This rifle also has a rarely seen short-barrel version, PA md. 86 cu țeavă scurtă (short-barreled PA md. 86), where the front sight is placed on the gas block, with the gas tube being shortened. This version uses both straight and laminate grip handguards.
Civilian variants
The 5.45×39mm civilian export versions are: Romak 992, Romak 2, Intrac Mk II, CUR-2, WUM-2, SAR 2, and the WASR 2 which is the current production rifle. The WASR 2 does not have a dimpled receiver, unlike previous models.
5.45 mm RPK
The RPK version of the md. 86 is called the md. 93. It features a long reinforced receiver, a carry handle, and a bipod. An earlier, short-lived version used a fire control group similar to the 7.62 mm md. 64, "Safe – Auto – Single". The md. 93 changed this to the md. 86 style "Safe – Auto – Single – Burst".